Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 18/11/2006 22:03, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:
> ...
>
> I think we agree.  This was a book.  The other side contains portions of Ben
> Sira 4.  When understood to be folded together, these are shown to be
> consecutive pages in a book.
>
>   
Yes, it was a book, but this does not imply that the two sides of the 
same double spread are consecutive pages. Look at how books (and 
newspapers) are bound today. My guess is that this was one set of double 
pages bound together like a modern booklet or notebook with part of 
Sirach in it, with early chapters on one half of a double spread and 
later chapters on the other half. Perhaps this scribe realised by the 
time he got to chapter 26 (with chapter 3 on the other half of the page) 
that he was running out of space in his notebook, with perhaps only a 
couple of pages left, and so skipped large parts of what he was copying. 
But then this can probably be clarified by looking at the complete set 
of fragments.

By the way, the guy's name was Sirach or Ben Sirach, so why do people 
drop the final "ch"?

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/